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Saturday’s DARC SkyNet is at 9PM CT
Recent Astronomical Discoveries
Citizen science reveals that Jupiter’s colorful clouds are not made of ammonia ice
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250106133204.htm
Jupiter
Discussion Topic of the Evening
“Arecibo Observatory: The rise, legacy, and tragic collapse of a giant”
https://www.space.com/20984-arecibo-observatory.html
Arecibo and the Milky Way
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dHKUV9AFjtMzBcXER4Et5k-1200-80.jpg.webp
Arecibo Message and Decoded Key
https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/c0166817/800wm/C0166817-Arecibo_message_and_decoded_key.jpg
Goldeneye
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/11/20/10/35904578-8969455-image-a-9_1605866468750.jpg
Aging Arecibo Telescope (2019)
https://welcome.topuertorico.org/img/th-arecibo-tele.jpg
Photo: Dedication 1963
Upgraded Telescope with New Dome Reflector Array
Mountain View
https://gdb.voanews.com/ef432c73-2060-4bf9-ac48-df34645047ac_cx11_cy2_cw86_w1023_n_r1_st_s.jpg
Doppler Radar Schematic
FRB-2 Artist’s Concept
Arecibo’s Phaethon Radar Images
https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/imagesasteroid20171222PIA22185-16.jpg
Secondary Array Collapse
Late Night Photo 2014
Waz Up
Space Exploration and Space History
Space Exploration News
Astronaut Set to Patch NASA’s X-ray Telescope Aboard Space Station
How US-Indian NISAR Satellite Will Offer Unique Window on Earth
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1-pia26492-nisar-horizon.png?resize=2000,741
Mars rock samples may contain evidence of alien life, but can NASA get them back to Earth?
Space-Related Birthdays
January 6, 1948: Guy Gardner STS-27, STS-35
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Guy_Gardner.jpg/220px-Guy_Gardner.jpg
January 6, 1948 : Michael Foale STS-45, STS-56, STS-63, STS-84 (up), Mir NASA-5 (Mir EO-23 and 24(, STS-86 (down), STS-103, Soyuz TMA-3 (Expedition 8)
January 7, 1941: Frederick Gregory STS-51-B, STS-33, STS-44; CAPCOM during Challenger; Deputy Administrator of NASA 2002-2005
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Col._Frederick_D._Gregory_%2814573232936%29.jpg
January 11, 1975: Robert Hines, KI5RQT SpaceX Crew-4/Exp 67-68 – April – Oct 2022
This Week in Space History
On this day in 1998 ( January 6, EST, January 7, UT), NASA’s Lunar Prospector spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: “Lunar Prospector, built for the NASA Ames Research Center by Lockheed Martin.
On Jan. 5, 1972, President Nixon directed NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher to develop the Space Transportation System, the formal name for the space shuttle – the only element of the STG’s recommendations to survive the budgetary challenges.
Jan. 7, 1968 Surveyor 7 launched. https://moonregistry.forallmoonkind.org/wp-content/uploads/1968/01/surveyor7-launch.jpg
Jan 8, 1942: British physicist Stephen Hawking was born.https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Hawking_young.jpg
Jan 9, 1963: The Relay 1 communications satellite relayed the first television program through space.https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-NASM2022-06549&max_w=900
Jan 10, 1946: Near Belmar, New Jersey, Lt. Col. John H. DeWitt, Jr (N4CBC) bounced a radio signal off of the moon.
https://coaxicom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/type80.jpg
Jan 11, 1962: In his State of the Union message to the Congress, President John F. Kennedy said: “With the approval of this Congress, we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space.”
Miss Carolyn’s Constellation of the Week
Constellation “Taurus the Bull”
Space Launches For This Week
Space Flight Now Launch Schedule
NET January 12 New Glenn • NG-1
Launch time: 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC)
Launch site: Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch the company’s Blue Ring spacecraft, which is capable of both hosting and deploying multiple payloads. Blue Origin will attempt to land the first stage booster on its sea-based landing platform, ‘Jacklyn.’ Delayed from Jan. 6. Delayed from Jan. 10 due to rough seas in the booster recovery zone.
Updated: January 09
NET January 13 Falcon 9 • Starlink 12-4
Launch time: Window opens 9:59 a.m. EST (1459 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will land on a SpaceX droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Updated: January 07
NET January 13 Starship • Flight 7
Launch time: 4 p.m. CST (5 p.m. EST, 2200 UTC)
Launch site: OLP-A, Starbase, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
SpaceX will launch its sixth, suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship rocket, a combination of the Ship upper stage (S33) and the Super Heavy booster (B14). SpaceX plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower, but will make a final determination on the catch following liftoff and stage separation. This mission will feature first block upgrades for the Ship upper stage. S33 will perform a landing flip and made a gentle splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Updated: January 08
NET January 14 Falcon 9 • Transporter-12
Launch time: Window opens at 10:49 a.m. PST (1:49 p.m. EST, 1849 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the company’s 12th rideshare mission to a sun-synchronous orbit. Onboard are a variety of customer satellites, including 35 satellites integrated by Exolaunch along with 36 SuperDoves and Pelican-2 from Planet Labs PBC. Less than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will return to a landing pad near the launch site.
Updated: January 09
NET January 15 Falcon 9 • ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’
Launch time: 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 UTC)
Launch site: Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a pair of lunar landers to begin independent journeys to the Moon. The primary payload is Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander. It will carry 10 science payloads from NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ mission will target a landing at Mare Crisium, near Mons Latreille, in early March. Japan-based ispace’s Resilience lander will also travel to the Moon as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 rocket. It will take between four and five months before making its landing attempt near the center of Mare Frigoris. It too caries a number of payloads, including the Tenacious micro rover.
Updated: January 07
NET Spring 2025 New Glenn • EscaPADE
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch a pair of identical spacecraft on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. The two satellites, named Blue and Gold, will make a roughly 11-month journey to Mars where they will then perform about an 11-month science mission while orbiting the Red Planet. Blue and Gold were manufactured by Rocket Lab over about 3.5 years and carry science experiments from the University of California, Berkeley. This launch of the New Glenn rocket will also feature a landing attempt on its landing barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from October 13.
Updated: September 11
TBD 2025 Vulcan Centaur • Dream Chaser 1
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch on its second demonstration flight with Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle for the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser is a lifting body resupply spacecraft that will launch on top of a rocket and land on a runway. This will be the Dream Chaser’s first flight to space. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly in the VC4L configuration with four GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters, a long-length payload fairing, and two RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. Delayed from August 2022, December 2023, January 2024, April 2024 and September 2024.
Visible satellite passages over the next couple of days.
You can use the http://www.heavens-above.com website to find out what’s in orbit and
where to look during fly-overs
All times are “local” (Dallas) time.
ISS
Jan 12
Jan 13
Jan 14
Jan 15
Tiangong
Jan 12
Jan 13